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Editor:
We are writing as concerned students. We want to know where Dr. Grant E. Smith is. For those of you who do not know who Grant Smith is, he was our director of campus recreation. He created the department and led the design and construction of the Student Recreation Center. Both are recognized as among the best in the country.
Unfortunately, he is looking for another job because he was fired in May. Why? Did he get so mad that he shattered a woman's car window at the airport like one of the basketball coaches did this summer? No. We think we know exactly why he got fired.
HE FOUGH FOR US! HE FOUGHT FOR THE STUDENTS!
Grant gave something important to the students and the entire campus we never had before. He worked hard and gave us a great recreation center. He created super programs and great facilities. But most of all, he fought for our rights, and he fought to ins ure that the university did not forget its promises to us.
When the students decided to charge themselves to build the recreation center, the university promised to pay $5 million of the cost. IT NEVER DID. When the vote was passed, it included a promise by the university that no existing recreation facilities wo uld be taken. IT HAS CONTINUALLY TRIED TO TAKE BEAR DOWN AND OTHER FACILITIES, AND IT TOOK THE PARK FITNESS CENTER LAST YEAR.
Grant's firing came because he continued to talk about the money. He talked to every ASUA president since 1990 until Ben Driggs decided it was important, and he got President Pacheco to acknowledge that the university owed the students $3.5 million. He fo ught hard to keep all the facilities becasue we need all of them. He made the higher-ups mad, and they got rid of him becasue he wouldn't play the political game. They fired him even though the Department of Campus Recreation and the Student Recreation Ce nter are ranked in the top five in the country. Grant is nationally recognized as a leader in recreation.
We know all of this becasue we worked for the Department of Campus Recreation. We know because we watched him stick his neck out not only for the students, but for the faculty and staff as well. We know becasue he kept asking hard and embarrassing questio ns like why 99 percent of the students can't use a half-billion dollars of athletic facilities.
So we know why they fired him, because he didn't shut-up, because he put us, the students, first. We were too important to him. He fought for us when no one else would.
Now he doesn't have the job he created at his alma mater. Now he's no longer one of the best recreation directors in the country. What the university has done is not right. We need to fight for our friend. We need to fight for Grant Smith the way he fough t for us.
We want him back. You should too.
Alejandro W. Alcantara
political science seniorEduardo F. Fiallos
biology seniorErik D. Pence
graduate student
exercise and sport sciencesGalvin G. Peratt
graduate student
exercise and sport sciencesAnthony L. Pinkins
psychology senior
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